The places where Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu rest are a good trump card for attracting tourists, but for Russians such trips can be expensive. Yury Shchegolkov, director of the Foundation for the Development of Small Historical Towns, told The Insider about this, commenting on the news about the new Siberian Holidays tour route to Putin's vacation spots.
“These are really very beautiful places. I don't think that the president would rest in places that are not very beautiful. He has a lot of things to do, work, so he rests in beautiful places. You know, there are different ways to attract tourists: for example, film tourism. Or like in the places of The Da Vinci Code. I assume that there is some logic in the decision of Rostourism. Of course, when the idea arises to provide rest where our president rests, for a wider range of people, there are no problems in the brand. Another issue is that not everything has yet been resolved in terms of infrastructure, because the president, too, does not always rest in tents. But I must say that both Khakassia and Tuva are trying to create good, high-quality hotels.”
Shchegolkov singled out Khakassia, which, according to him, “without any president”, represents Russia very well at tourism exhibitions.
“To understand what our country is, you need to travel to such places. The places are wonderful, like a trump card for attraction - good, but not everything is clear with the infrastructure, and not everything is clear with transportation and flights either. Quite far away, it is necessary to subsidize, that is, such trips themselves can be expensive. Even though these trips are subsidized, in a situation where people are quite seriously worried about what will happen to their work tomorrow, how the sanctions will affect their work, how much can you be sure about tomorrow - in such a situation it is difficult to talk about tourism , because tourism is still not a service of prime necessity. People think more about products, about health - about those things that they care about in the first place. Probably, there remains a layer of people who can travel without hesitation, this forum (SPIEF) served as a good advertisement for “Traveling to the places where Putin was”
The interlocutor also added that such a route cannot be massive. According to him, family people, when they want to spend money on vacation, tend to the sun: “But with the sun, it’s not easy for us. We have a little Krasnodar Territory here. Crimea, to which I don’t think that now there will be a large flow due to this whole situation around. And that's it. Therefore, now, of course, it is not necessary to say that “Everything is fine with us, a new route is opening for us.” I'm somehow more pessimistic."
Shchegolkov clarified that it is quite difficult to say that the demand for tourism has grown. Because of “the events that have taken place”, it is not so easy to leave now somewhere in Spain or Europe, he recalled. Tourism has also been affected by the coronavirus, the industry is experiencing “blow by blow”. Shchegolkov cited as an example the absence of 1 million tourists from China on the market due to the epidemic, whose average check was about $1,000 (a total of $1 billion). Now everything is in a state of global restructuring, repair, and it is not worth saying that demand has grown, he concluded.
Earlier, the Russians were presented with an eight-day tour route "Siberian Holidays" with a length of 1.2 thousand km to the places of rest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the head of the Federal Tourism Agency Zarina Doguzova spoke about the route. According to her, 1.2 billion rubles have been allocated for all routes under development, next year - 3.1 billion rubles as part of the Rostourism grant program.
At the same time, the department added to Novaya Gazeta. Europe”, that “the very places” where Putin is resting, no one will let the Russians in, and the route “Siberian holidays” is different from the presidential one. “Just around. Well, Vladimir Vladimirovich is resting on the Yenisei, and we have the Yenisei. Or Tuva - both with us and with him. We tried to bring it as close as possible, but these are still not the very places where he and Sergei Kuzhugetovich rest, ”said the Rostourism.
In September last year, Putin spent a vacation in Siberia with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The Kremlin published photos of him with fish caught in the taiga, as well as photos of walks with the Minister of Defense.
